Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” (2 Corinthians 1:1). What a beautiful thought: we are here by the will of God. By the will of God, we are saved; by the will of God, we are sanctified; by the will of God, we are baptized in the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit Is Our Comforter
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort”
(verse 3). Jesus could not have breathed any greater words than John 14:16: “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper [‘Comforter,’ kjv], that He may abide with you forever.”
“The Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” We need a revelation of a greater power, an abiding presence sustaining and comforting us in the hour of trial, ready at a moment’s notice, an inbreathing of God in the human life.
What more do we need in these last days when perilous times are upon us than to be filled, saturated, baptized with the Holy Spirit? Baptized. Baptized into Him, never to come out. How comforting! Exhilarating! Joyful! May it please the Lord to establish us in this state of grace. May we know nothing among men except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (See 1 Corinthians 2:2.) May we be clothed with His Spirit—nothing outside of the blessed Holy Spirit. This, beloved, is God’s ideal for us.
Comfort in the Midst of Tribulation
[God] comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:4)
Are we here in this experience?
Where He may lead me I will go, For I have learned to trust Him so, And I remember it was for me, That He was slain on Calvary.
“[God] comforts us in all our tribulation!” God has chosen me to go through certain experiences to profit others. In all ages, God has had His witnesses, and He is teaching, chastening, correcting, and moving me just up to the point that I am able to bear it, in order to meet a needy soul who would otherwise go down without such comfort. All the chastening and the hardship is because we are able to bear it. No, we are not able, but we yield to Another—even the Holy Spirit. We are strengthened so that we may endure and so that we may comfort others
“with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
Why do we need brokenness and travail? The reason can be found in the book of Psalms: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word” (Psalm 119:67).
Another passage in Psalms says,
Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. (Psalm 107:17–19) He saves them? What does the word fool mean? One who knows better than to do what he is doing. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 53:1), but he knows better. It is only the hardened heart and the stiff neck that are destroyed without remedy. (See Proverbs 29:1.)
Yielding to God’s Plan
Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)
It works out that chastening provokes or bestows upon us fruits unto holiness. It is in the hard places where we see no help that we cry out to God. He delivers us. What for? So that we can help the tempted. It was said of Jesus that He was “in all points tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). Where did He receive strength to comfort us? It was at the end of “strong crying and tears” (Hebrews 5:7), when the angel came just in time and ministered and saved Him from death. Is He not able? Oh, God highly
exalted Him. Now He can send angels to us. When? Just when we are about to go straight down. At such times in the past, did He not stretch out to us a helping hand?
An Interpretation of Tongues:
It is God who sees into the depths of the human heart. He sees and saves those in trouble. There is in it a plan and a purpose for others. How is it worked out? On the line of submission and yielding and a yielding to the unfolding of God’s plan. Then we will be able to save others.
[God] comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:4)
There is a sense of the power of God in humanity bringing you through necessities, never touching the mortal body, only the mind. We must have “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).
Consolation Abounding
“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ” (verse 5). God takes us to a place of need, and before we are barely aware of it, we are full of consolation toward the needy.
How? The sufferings of Christ abound! The ministry of the Spirit abounds so often. It is a great blessing. We do not
know our calling in the Spirit. It is so much greater than our appreciation of it. Then we speak a word in season (see Isaiah 50:4); here and there we minister, sowing beside all waters as the Holy Spirit directs our paths.
Divine Cooperation
Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. (2 Corinthians 1:6)
Paul and the people he ministered to cooperated with one another. Here is the value of testing: it results in a great flow of life from one to another. John Wesley woke up one day and became conscious of the need of one establishing another. In this way, he bore witness to the ministry of the Spirit, and multitudes were born again in his meetings when they heard the wonderful works of God. They heard stories and had consolation poured out to them by the revelation of the Spirit.
We are members of one another. When God’s breath is upon us and we are quickened by the Holy Spirit, we can pour into each other wonderful ministries of grace and helpfulness. We need a strong ministry of consolation, not deterioration or living below our privileges.
Consolation Resulting from Deprivation These consolations come out of deprivation, affliction,
and endurance. “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9).
Have we gone as far as Paul? Not one of us has. Can you see how Paul could help and comfort and sustain because he yielded to God all his trust as Jesus did?
Because he was yielded to the Holy Spirit to work out the sentence of death, he could help others.
I pray to God that He may never find us “kick[ing]
against the goads” (Acts 9:5). We may have to go through the testing; the truths you stand for, you are tried for.
Divine healing, purity of heart, baptism in the Holy Spirit and in fire—we are tested for these truths. We cannot get out of this testing. But in every meeting, the glory rises.
We descend down into trials also to be sustained and brought out for the glory of God. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Oh, the joy of being worthy of suffering! How will I stand the glory that will be after?
There are many of God’s people who are victorious in suffering but fail or back out when things are going fine.
Deprivation is often easier than success. We need a sound mind all the time to balance us so that we do not trade our liberty for something less.
We get glimpses of the glory all the time. To Paul in the glory, the presence of the Lord was so wonderful. But he said, “Lest I should be exalted...a thorn in the flesh was given to me” (2 Corinthians 12:7). That was the mercy of God. “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations” (2 Peter 2:9) and “saves such as have a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18). What a revelation for the time to come! If Satan had his way, we would be devoured.
God’s Great Deliverance
“[God] delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:10).
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is! He will never fail us.
He has been faithful until this moment, and He will keep us to the end.
[God] delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many. (2 Corinthians 1:10–11)
“[God] delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.”
Amen.